One of the difficulties that users of the Internet have encountered is the difficulty in locating and identifying resources within the Internet. In order to help standardize the location and identification information for Internet resources, the notion of a uniform resource locator (URL) has been developed. A URL is a string that describes the location of a resource on the Internet. A URL may include a number of different components, including the identification of a scheme (i.e., Internet protocol) and a path name. A URL may be utilized by an Internet protocol handler to locate the resource that is identified by the URL.
Navigation tools have been developed to assist users in navigating the Internet. These navigation tools include Web browsers that are used to browse the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. The Web browsers have provided a number of mechanisms for assisting a user in quickly locating documents on the Internet. FIG. 1.A depicts an example of one mechanism that is employed within a window 10 of a Web browser. The mechanism is a text box 12 in which a user may enter a URL. After the user enters the URL, the corresponding document is retrieved and displayed.
Another mechanism that has been employed in Web browsers is a list, such as a hot list or a history list. FIG. 1B depicts an example of a hot list. A hot list contains a list of the user's favorite document sites. In this regard, the hot list acts as a sort of cache of documents from the Internet. In FIG. 1B, the hot list has its own window 14 that includes a list portion 18 and buttons 20. The buttons 20 may be used to add or delete items from the list 18. To view a particular document on the hot list, the user selects the item from the hot list and requests that the item be opened by double clicking on the item or using another opening mechanism. History lists are similar to hot lists, but maintain a historical list of Web sites that have been visited by a user.
Certain Web browsers utilize bookmarks. A bookmark is a pointer to an Internet site. A user may create a number of bookmarks that are stored in a list like that shown in FIG. 1C. The list 22 has separate entries 24 and 26 for each of the bookmarks the user has saved.